“I think there’s been some excellent advice,” Sweeting said. “I urge you to recognize there is a different point of view.”

Sweeting asked attendees to define success for the Lowcountry’s quality of life.

“That’s not just for you in this room, but for all of the citizens in this place,” Sweeting said, adding they should represent the many and not the few.

Another attendee followed Sweeting and agreed with him, saying dialogue goes both ways and the cruise industry needs to empathize with their perspective as well and make an effort to hear their point of view.

A former New Yorker staff writer gave the symposium’s final speech. Tony Hiss has also written 13 books, most recently In Motion: The Experience of Travel.

Hiss said the time may have come for new tactics.

“It’s time to reach out to the rest of the city,” he said, adding that it is disquieting that the only black person at the symposium was from Aruba. “What are their problems? What are the smokestacks in their lives that they cannot abide?”

Hiss said cruise ships bring many contradictions to the surface. Diesel trucks aren’t allowed to idle, but a docked cruise ship can. Cruise ships snarl traffic downtown, but traffic is also stopped every time it rains hard.

“Nobody seems to be up in arms about that,” Hiss said.

Hiss also advised working collaboratively and reaching out locally and regionally.

“Communities that argue tend to solve their problems,” Hiss said. “Silent communities don’t, so you’re well on your way to solving your problems.”